The Empire of Russia eBook

“It was the 7th of February, 1807. The
night was dark and intensely cold as the Russians,
exhausted by the retreat of the day, took their positions
for the desperate battle of the morrow. There
was a gentle swell of land extending two or three
miles, which skirted a vast, bleak, unsheltered plain,
over which the wintry gale drifted the snow.
Upon this ridge the Russians in double lines formed
themselves in battle array. Five hundred pieces
of cannon were ranged in battery, to hurl destruction
into the bosoms of their foes. They then threw
themselves upon the icy ground for their frigid bivouac.
A fierce storm had already risen, which spread over
the sleeping host its mantle of snow.”

Napoleon came also upon the field, in the darkness
of the night and of the storm, and placed his army
in position for the battle which the dawn would usher
in. Two hundred pieces of artillery were planted
to reply to the Russian batteries. There were
eighty thousand Russians on the ridge, sixty thousand
Frenchmen on the plain, and separated by a distance
of less than half a cannon shot. The sentinels
of either army could almost touch each other with
their muskets.

The morning had not yet dawned when the cannonade
commenced. The earth shook beneath its roar.
A storm of snow at the same time swept over the plain
blinding and smothering assailants and assailed.
The smoke of the battle blended with the storm had
spread over the contending hosts a sulphurous canopy
black as midnight. Even the flash of the guns
could hardly be discerned through the gloom. All
the day long, and until ten o’clock at night,
the battle raged with undiminished fury. One
half of the Russian army was now destroyed, and the
remainder, unable longer to endure the conflict, sullenly
retreated. Napoleon remained master of the field,
which exhibited such a scene of misery as had never
before met even his eye. When congratulated upon
his victory by one of his officers he replied sadly,

“To a father who loses his children, victory
has no charms. When the heart speaks, glory itself
is an illusion.”

CHAPTER XXX.

REIGN OF ALEXANDER I.

From 1807 to 1825.

The Field of Eylau.—­Letter to the King
of Prussia.—­Renewal of the War—­Discomfiture
of the Allies.—­Battle of Friedland.—­The
Raft at Tilsit.—­Intimacy of the Emperors.—­Alexander’s
Designs upon Turkey.—­Alliance between France
and Russia.—­Object of the Continental System.—­Perplexities
of Alexander.—­Driven by the Nobles to War.—­Results
of the Russian Campaign.—­Napoleon Vanquished.—­Last
Days of Alexander.—­His Sickness and Death.

From the field of Eylau, the Russians and Prussians
retreated to the Niemen. Napoleon remained some
days upon the field to nurse the wounded, and, anxious
for peace, wrote to the King of Prussia in the following
terms: